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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) A. Murdock
Request for Comments: 7467 NATO C&I Agency
Category: Informational April 2015
ISSN: 2070-1721
URN Namespace for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Abstract
This document allocates a formal Uniform Resource Name (URN)
namespace for assignment by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO), as specified in RFC 3406. At this time, the URN will be used
primarily to uniquely identify Extensible Markup Language (XML)
artefacts that provide information about NATO message text formats
and service specifications as described in various NATO standards,
instructions, and publications.
Status of This Memo
This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
published for informational purposes.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Not all documents
approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7467.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2015 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
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described in the Simplified BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ................................................ 2
2. Specification Template ...................................... 3
2.1. Namespace ID ........................................... 3
2.2. Registration Information ............................... 3
2.3. Declared Registrant of the Namespace ................... 3
2.4. Declaration of Syntactic Structure ..................... 3
2.5. Relevant Ancillary Documentation ....................... 4
2.6. Identifier Uniqueness Considerations ................... 4
2.7. Identifier Persistence Considerations .................. 4
2.8. Process of Identifier Assignment ....................... 5
2.9. Process for Identifier Resolution ...................... 5
2.10. Rules for Lexical Equivalence ......................... 5
2.11. Conformance with URN Syntax ........................... 5
2.12. Validation Mechanism .................................. 5
2.13. Scope ................................................. 5
3. Namespace Considerations .................................... 6
4. Community Considerations .................................... 6
5. Security Considerations ..................................... 7
6. IANA Considerations ......................................... 7
7. Conclusions ................................................. 7
8. References .................................................. 7
8.1. Normative References ................................... 7
8.2. Informative References ................................. 8
Acknowledgments ................................................ 8
Author's Address ............................................... 8
1. Introduction
Historically, NATO has used standardized character-oriented message
text formats (MTF) to interoperate, report, and exchange information
both among its commands and with national entities, commercial
partners, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). These MTFs are
generated using the NATO Message Text Formatting System (FORMETS) in
accordance with the rules, constructions, and vocabulary specified
within the Allied Data Publication Number 3 (ADatP-3). Almost 400
NATO-defined messages that conform to ADatP-3 are contained in the
Allied Procedural Publication Number 11 (APP-11) NATO Message
Catalogue [7].
Prior to 2008, these messages were only available as slash-delimited
textual messages. Since 2008, the APP-11 message catalogue also
includes XML-MTF definitions for these messages, giving rise to a
need to define and manage a URN namespace to name the XML namespaces.
To address this need, this document requests that a formal URN space
type be assigned as described in Section 4.3 of RFC 3406.
2. Specification Template
2.1. Namespace ID
The Namespace ID (NID) "nato" has been assigned by IANA.
2.2. Registration Information
Version 1
Date: 2014-09-11
2.3. Declared Registrant of the Namespace
Registering Organization:
Name: North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Communications & Information Agency (NCIA)
Address: SHAPE, 7010, Belgium
Declared Contact: NATO Naming and Addressing Registration
Authority (NRA)
Email: nra@ncia.nato.int
2.4. Declaration of Syntactic Structure
The Namespace Specific String (NSS) of all URNs that use the "nato"
NID shall have the following structure:
<URN> ::= "urn:" "nato" ":" <NSS>
<NSS> ::= <Type> | <Type> ":" <Source> |
<Type> ":" <Source> 1*( ":" <segment> )
<Type> ::= 1*<non-colon chars>
<Source> ::= 1*<non-colon chars>
<segment> ::= 1*<non-colon chars>
<non-colon chars> ::= <non-colon trans> | "%" <hex> <hex>
<non-colon trans> ::= <upper> | <lower> | <number> |
<non-colon other>
<hex> ::= <number> | "A" | "B" | "C" | "D" | "E" | "F" |
"a" | "b" | "c" | "d" | "e" | "f"
<non-colon other> ::= "(" | ")" | "+" | "," | "-" | "." |
"=" | "@" | ";" | "$" |"_" | "!" | "*" | "'"
The "Type" is the top-level segment of the NSS. It is a required
US-ASCII string, subject to the above syntax, that conforms to the
URN syntax requirements (see RFC 2141 [1]). It identifies a
particular category or type of named resources, such as "mtf".
The "Source" is the second-level segment of the NSS, belonging to the
"Type" context. At this time, not all "Type" segments have "Source"
children, making "Source" an optional US-ASCII string, subject to the
above syntax and conformant to the URN syntax requirements (see RFC
2141 [1]). "Source" identifies a particular standard, catalogue, or
other relevant specifications.
The NATO Naming and Registration Authority (NRA) functions as a Local
Internet Registry under RIPE NCC and will also serve as the
responsible registrar for assigning the first two levels of segments
within the NSS ("Type" and "Source"). The NRA may directly assign
segments below these levels of the namespace hierarchy, or delegate
assignment responsibilities for segments below the second level
(i.e., below "Source") at its discretion. In either case, the NRA
will ensure that a registry of the resulting namespace is maintained.
2.5. Relevant Ancillary Documentation
ADatP-3 - NATO, "Concept of NATO Message Text Formatting System
(Conformets) - ADatP-3 (A)", STANAG 5500 - Edition 7, November 2010.
2.6. Identifier Uniqueness Considerations
The NRA, as registrar, shall directly ensure the global uniqueness of
the assigned strings. Though responsibility for administration of
sub-trees may be delegated, these shall not be published to the
registry or be requested to be resolved by any URN resolver until the
uniqueness of the resulting urn:nato URN has been validated against
the existing contents of the registry. URN identifiers shall be
assigned to one resource at most and not reassigned.
2.7. Identifier Persistence Considerations
The Registrar may assign URNs in sub-trees below the level of Type or
Standard; however, once registered, URNs shall not be reassigned.
Within the registry, their status as "active" or "archive" shall be
recorded.
2.8. Process of Identifier Assignment
A namespace-specific string within the NATO namespace will only be
assigned upon advancement of a relevant specification. The Registrar
will check all requested identifiers against the existing
registrations within urn:nato to ensure uniqueness and encourage
relevance.
The assignment may include delegated registration activities for the
sub-tree if underpinned by supporting agreements. Otherwise, such
responsibilities remain with the NRA as the overarching Registrar.
In any case, the URN must be registered with appropriate metadata
before an authorized request for URN resolution can be initiated (if
necessary).
2.9. Process for Identifier Resolution
The namespace is not currently listed with a Resolution Discovery
System (RDS) [3]. In the future, URNs from this namespace may be
resolved using a NATO listing in an RDS, using a third-party-listed
resolver, an unlisted private resolver, or some combination of these.
The resolution method for each segment will be registered with the
NRA Registrar.
2.10. Rules for Lexical Equivalence
No special considerations. The rules for lexical equivalence
specified in RFC 2141 apply.
2.11. Conformance with URN Syntax
No special considerations.
2.12. Validation Mechanism
None specified. It will be conducted as part of the application for
identifier registration as indicated in preceding paragraphs.
2.13. Scope
Global.
3. Namespace Considerations
In addition to the large number of XML message specifications that
now exist in APP-11, there are other existing and emerging NATO
standard messages expressed as XML, as well as ongoing Web service
specification development. With no single NID registered to NATO,
some of these specifications may be established within locally
relevant, self-generated URN namespaces. Not only does this inhibit
the portability and adoption intended by standards development [5],
it risks name collisions when exposed to the global context of the
federation of partners for which these messages are destined.
The use of Uniform Resource Names with an appropriate Namespace ID
will enable the various NATO standards committees and working groups
[6] to use unique, relevant, reliable, permanent, managed, and
accessible namespace names for their XML products.
A dedicated namespace also provides NATO the opportunity to leverage
the use of URNs for persistent naming of non-XML resources.
4. Community Considerations
The NATO standards development community, and those implementing such
standards, will benefit from publication of this namespace by having
more permanent and reliable names for the XML namespaces defined
within STANAGs, the MTF catalogue (APP-11), and other published
standards [5].
Though these are NATO-published standards [5], they represent the
consensus of multi-national working groups, are implemented in
commercial products, and are used by partners within the
international community.
In the case of MTF standards [7], the responsibility for its
development and maintenance belongs to the NATO C3 Board's Message
Text Formats (MFT) Capability Team [6]. This team is "open to all
recognized NATO Partners around the Globe in principle. The term
'Partners around the Globe' summarizes all partners that are listed
on the NATO webpage: Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC), NATO's
Mediterranean Dialogue (MD), Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI)
and Partners across the globe" [8].
5. Security Considerations
Since the URNs in this namespace are opaque, there are no additional
security considerations other than those normally associated with the
use and resolution of URIs and URNs in general (see the Security
Considerations in Internet STD 66 [4], RFC 2141 [1], and BCP 66 [2]).
It is noted, however, that resolution algorithms and rules for
handling invalid URNs are opaque. Therefore, attempting to resolve a
NATO URN through a resolver other than one operated or delegated by
NATO may return outdated, incorrect, or confusing results.
Distribution of NATO information in any form is subject to its
security policies. Nonetheless, this specification is for public use
and not subject to any NATO security policies.
6. IANA Considerations
This document registers the formal URN NID "nato", which has been
entered into the "Formal URN Namespaces" IANA registry [9]. Per
Section 4.3 of RFC 3406 [2], formal NIDs are assigned via IETF
Consensus and are subject to IESG review and acceptance. The
registration template is given in Section 2.
7. Conclusions
It is necessary that NATO ensures its messages, service
specifications, and other XML artefacts are based in namespaces that
can be described using unique, persistent, and managed URNs.
Considering its role as an information broker between many disparate
communities, this document registers a formal namespace identifier
(NID) "nato" for Uniform Resource Names (URN) associated with NATO
information products and vocabularies: urn:nato.
8. References
8.1. Normative References
[1] Moats, R., "URN Syntax", RFC 2141, May 1997,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2141>.
[2] Daigle, L., van Gulik, D., Iannella, R., and P. Faltstrom,
"Uniform Resource Names (URN) Namespace Definition Mechanisms",
BCP 66, RFC 3406, October 2002,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3406>.
[3] Sollins, K., "Architectural Principles of Uniform Resource Name
Resolution", RFC 2276, January 1998,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2276>.
[4] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform
Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66, RFC 3986,
January 2005, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3986>.
8.2. Informative References
[5] NATO, "List of Current NATO Standards",
<http://nso.nato.int/nso/nsdd/listpromulg.html>.
[6] NATO, "NATO HQ C3 Staff Main Page",
<https://nhqc3s.hq.nato.int/Default.aspx>.
[7] NATO, "NATO Message Catalogue - APP-11(C) Change 1" STANAG 7149,
Edition 5, September 2010.
[8] NATO, "Request to open MTF CaT to all NATO Partners", document
AC/322-N(2014)0091-AS1, 2014. Available from the NATO Public
Diplomacy Division.
[9] IANA, "Uniform Resource Names (URN) Namespaces",
<http://www.iana.org/assignments/urn-namespaces>.
Acknowledgments
The author acknowledges and appreciates the support and expertise
provided by Nanda Kol, Ulrich Ritgen, and the urn-nid review team.
Authors' Address
Aidan Murdock
NATO C&I Agency
Core Enterprise Services
Naming and Registration Authority
SHAPE, Belgium
7010
EMail: Aidan.murdock@ncia.nato.int

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